The Freedom Park is a 52-hectare site dedicated to the healing of our nation. The elements in this hilly, indigenous landscape tell the story of South Africa’s painful journey to freedom and humanity. They stand in tribute to the spirit of resistance and the willingness to forgive which has made the South Africa of today possible. All the elements in the park are linked together by a spiral path,
Mveledzo.
Isivivane is a spiritual resting place for the souls of those people who died in the struggles for humanity and freedom.
The 697m long Wall of Names honours the people who died in the eight major conflicts that have shaped the South Africa of today.
The Sanctuary provides a space for meditation about the passing of loved ones and the opportunity to light a candle in remembrance of victims who died in our struggles for freedom.
The Gallery of Leaders pays tribute to leaders whose contributions stand out in human memory and history - nationally, continentally and internationally.
The ascending sculptural steel reeds are a symbolic representation of the reeds from which humans emerged in the African creation story and also signify the rebirth of the South African nation.
The Freedom Park can be described as an immense garden of healing and remembrance. Its architectural designs pay homage to the rocky landscape and reflect the spirit of traditional, indigenous knowledge systems.
An African story of creation, related by the late Dr Harriet Ngubane, led to rocks and reeds becoming important visual motifs in the design. Large rocks with healing properties in their healing garden inspired the vision of //hapo as a series of abstract boulders which lie in the landscape like a large rock outcrop. On the advice of traditional healers they are nestled against the hillside where the ancestors are said to reside.
//hapo (the dream), an interpretive centre and Pan-African archive in the Freedom Park, is to be completed in September 2010. Housed together as a centre of knowledge that captures the South African history from as far as 3.6 billion years ago and up to the present day, the project’s primary objectives are to create a deeper understanding of South Africa and its people, to create new knowledge of South African history, culture, and spirituality, and to place the country’s entire history in a context whose integrity will be respected nationally and internationally.